Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

✍️ Peter Thiel

Business books are known by being “fluff friendly” and by having few useful content.

Zero to One is the opposite. It is a short book (~200 pages) based on the entrepreneurship course that Peter Thiel taught some years ago at Stanford and goes straight to the point. Thiel starts with his famous interview question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” and the book can be seen as his answer to this question, specially his views on globalization, monopolies, and the lean startup trend.

Along the book, Thiel shares his opinion on what factors make a company successful. He talks about engineering, team, distribution, among other aspects. And each aspect is peppered with examples from companies that Thiel founded or invested on.

He states that successful startups should have answers for seven fundamental questions:

1.The Engineering Question: Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
2.The Timing Question: Is now the right time to start your particular business?
3.The Monopoly Question: Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
4.The People Question: Do you have the right team?
5.The Distribution Question: Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
6.The Durability Question: Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
7.The Secret Question: Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?

A very good read that I recommend to people that are thinking of starting a company and also to people interested in the startup business landscape.